take a back seat

From take a seat and back seat.

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take a back seat (third-person singular simple present takes a back seat, present participle taking a back seat, simple past took a back seat, past participle taken a back seat)

1. (idiomatic) To adopt a position of noninvolvement.

   The new chairman is happy to take a back seat when it comes to day-to-day operations.

2. (idiomatic) To be second to someone or something; to be less important or have a lower priority.
   • 2004, My Life by Bill Clinton

     But as with most kids, politics took a backseat to daily life.

   • 2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist‎:

     The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

   • 2023 April 29, Noam Scheiber, John Koblin, “Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?”, in The New York Times‎:

     Mr. August, a screenwriter for movies like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said that while artificial intelligence had taken a back seat to compensation in the Writers Guild negotiation, the union was making two key demands on the subject of automation.